


Instead, Or: The Aftermath of it All.

by hellskitchensmurdock



Category: I Am Not Okay with This (TV 2020)
Genre: Blood, Post Episode s01e07, Post Finale, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:22:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22919143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellskitchensmurdock/pseuds/hellskitchensmurdock
Summary: He took a deep breath. There was only one thing on his mind. One person.Sydney.
Relationships: Sydney Novak & Stanley Barber
Comments: 6
Kudos: 131





	Instead, Or: The Aftermath of it All.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!! So I finished I Am Not Okay With This last night and wanted to write a fic!! As this is a particularly new fandom, with not that many fics for the graphic novel/comics, the tagging is not incredible.   
> Also, major spoilers for the finale, so if you don't want that don't read!!!  
> Anyways, I hope you enjoy this!!

Screaming. Yelling. Footsteps, fast, running. Stan groaned softly, pushing himself up from the ground and opening his eyes.

The first thing he saw was the blood. The puddle of red blood, spreading across the gum floor. Like water some prick squirted on the ground in elementary school. Everyone would scream and jump back to avoid it, as if it was poison. Or blood.

He vaguely thought that he should be scared, like the others.

Instead, he focused on the body. He stared at it, trying to figure out who it was as if he didn’t already know.

It was Bradley Lewis. Golden boy, star of the Shakespearean tragedy, Bradley Lewis was dead, in a pool of blood. Without his head.

The gears clicked in Stan’s mind instantly. He stood up and stumbled back from the body in shock.

“No…” he muttered aloud. “Surely not.”

Sydney hadn’t… She couldn’t have.

But she did. It had to have been Sydney because… who else could it have been? Who else could explode a head? Because that’s what this clearly was.

Dina was crouching next to Bradley. She was sobbing with a look of confusion, of fear, etched on her face. She was covered in blood.

 _His head would be somewhere if he had been decapitated. People wouldn’t be covered in blood. Well, as much blood._ He thought.

Then, _What the fuck, Stanley!?_ He scolded himself. He should be afraid, running away like everyone else.

Instead, he slowly approached Dina and crouched beside her, careful to avoid the blood.

“Hey, Dina.” His tone was soft, but his voice was raised over the chaos surrounding them. “Could you tell me what happened?”

“His… head.” She eventually choked out between sobs. Stan nodded. He was right.

He took a deep breath. There was only one thing on his mind. One person.

Sydney.

She would’ve run. He knows her now, and he knows that after her powers hurt someone she runs. Understandably so.

He gave Dina’s shoulder a soft squeeze, it was the best he could do, before setting off in a run. He didn’t bother with the school grounds, knowing she would’ve kept running.

He quickly got into his car and started it up. He checked the train tracks and the bowling alley first. He didn’t bother with her house, which seemed even less logical than the school grounds.

On a hunch, Stan drove to the forest. Where he first found out about Sydney’s powers. He parked his car on the side of the road and ran to the centre of the destroyed trees. Where Sydney was standing that night.

He spun in a circle, figuring out where to go.

“Think,” he said to himself. He grabbed his head in his hands and pulled at his hair. “Think!”

He should stop. He should leave. He should turn around and drive away and be safe.

Instead, he followed the path Sydney took that night. Because leaving her wasn’t an option. Because she needed someone. Because she just lost control and is probably terrified.

When he saw a figure at the top of the tower he began to run faster. Until someone else appeared. Something else. It was smoke, black smoke, and then it was a person. The smoke turned into a person.

“What the fuck?” Stan whispered. He stopped by a tree, climbing up it to hide but still get a good view of what was going on.

“Who are you?” Sydney asked the person. He seemed to be an old man, dressed in all black. “Should I be afraid?”

“They should be afraid,” he replied. “Let’s begin.”

He held out his hand. Stan watched, a knot in his stomach. Sydney, covered in blood, hesitated, thinking about her options.

“Will they be safe if I come with you?” Sydney asked.

Stan’s eyes widened.

“Yes.”

“Will I be safe?”

“Yes.”

She nodded and took his hand. Stan’s heart dropped. As the man began to turn into smoke he yelled out.

“Sydney! No!” He screamed. He lent forward from his position in the tree on instinct, because of course it wouldn’t help.

Sydney turned her head to look at him. She was covered in blood and terrified and guilty. And then she was gone, as was the man.

Stan wanted to scream, he wanted to punch something, he wanted to find Sydney, and he wanted to go back to that day in detention when he smoked with her and Dina. He wanted to go back in time and stop this from happening.

But he couldn’t.

Instead, he took a deep breath and climbed back down the tree. He walked back to his car and he sat in the driver’s seat, his mind blank. He didn’t know what to do. The person he cared about most was gone, he had no idea if she was safe or even alive.

He slipped his sunglasses on and lit a joint.

“What the fuck am I going to do now?” he asked aloud to no one. A moment later, he answered his own question. “Find Dina.”


End file.
